Dynamic Opinions and Views

“The Norquist Conspiracy”

A ‘mystriguing’ title for a mystery novel but this is not fiction!

Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, prides himself on the pledge that he has most Republicans sign.

The pledge, which Norquist entitled, Taxpayer Protection Pledge, essentially marshals every Republican politician at the federal level and most at the state levels from raising taxes in any form; including a misinterpretation of temporary tax benefits, such as oil subsidies, and the reasons for their passage.

Such a stringent demand on legislators has no place in a healthy and vibrant democracy. In fact, a pledge so restrictive as to potentially derail a functioning democracy can not be tolerated in a free society and should be viewed as UnAmerican.

What of the politicians who would sign such a pledge?

Without a stretch of the imagination one could view any politician who’d sign such a document, unPatriotic. A pledge of this nature—to an individual or an ideology—instead of open representation of their constituents’ and the nation’s interest, portends an ineffective lawmaker whose hands are tied by such a strict mandate.

The mantra that lower taxes stimulate jobs and promote growth has been, not only discredited, but proven to be an unprecedented transfer of wealth; a transfer that has led to a plutocratic oligarchy supplanting the merits and blessings of democracy.

Like other Republican politicians my two Representatives, Ed Royce, and, Gary Miller, have signed ‘the pledge’ and for more than a decade have represented only a small portion of their constituents while selling out the rest.

Their loyalty to the myopic Norquist tax policy forces them and their colleagues to take an unrealistic position on the debt ceiling and the deficit requiring them to lie about the state of the economy and how we got into the financial mess they helped create.

The truth—or at least a more honest assessment—Republicans are demanding irresponsible spending cuts while protecting the rich from fair taxation. This is a stand by politicians that are bought and sold by corporations and the wealthiest individuals in this country. To see who’s buying your Representative or Senator go to Open Secrets web site.

Responsible people understand that the severe cuts they’ve demanded will not fix the deficit and will cause the economy to go back into recession.

Even the fact that in every poll at least 75% or more agree with taxing the rich, will not deter these tunnel-visioned politicians from their destructive policy.

In their safe Republican districts, Royce and Miller will defend to the end their cataclysmic and indefensible tax argument.

Everyone agrees the Federal Government must address its spending but we must have an honest debate about what is best for the country—and who’s to blame.

Fiscal conservative, Ed Royce voted for two unfunded wars, an unfunded Medicare Part D, an over-expensed Homeland Security Department, and participated while Bush and his Republican colleagues increased the debt from $5.7 trillion to $11.6 trillion, as did Miller.

The steadily climbing debt we’ve faced since Bush left office is the result of Royce, Miller, Issa, Drier, and their Republican buddies’ votes over the past 12 years.

They have not been good stewards of the economy—actually they’ve been fiscally irresponsible—and their votes to lower taxes in 2001 and 2003 and the extension of the upper two brackets in 2008 has forced America to borrow an additional $2.3 trillion during that period to pay for their indiscretions.

But one pledge isn’t enough for this new breed of right-wingers. New pledges are making their way into the Republican psyche. Right-wing politicians seem incapable of functioning without a script and two new ones have emerged.

Senator, Jim DeMint, of South Carolina, has introduced “Cut, Cap, and Balance” which is essentially a pledge to a dramatic balanced-budget amendment. DeMint has threatened to withhold his endorsement from anyone—especially any Republican Presidential Candidate—who refuses to sign it. Only 12 Senators have signed the pledge as of Sunday.

The irony of DeMint’s pledge is his and his party’s complicity in creating the deficiencies he now claims his amendment will fix; an amendment that will kill, not only the U.S. economy, but the entire world economy as well.

And Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum have signed “The Marriage Vow,” a pledge initiated by Family Leader head, Bob Vander Plaats, which has already come under fire for its statement about slavery.

But the most pressing issue is the debt ceiling and whether the country will be able to pay its debts.

Republicans’ pledge to Norquist has made every Republican in office ineffective as legislators. They are responsible for thousands of deaths and injuries from the wars, for the banking crisis, rising Medicare costs, the failures of Enron and WorldCom, the current deficit, potentially permanent damage to the middle-class, and now threaten a default on our debts for the first time in our history.

In effect, allegiance to this false God and suffocating ideology has left the Republicans impotent and incapable of governing ‘for the people.’

This entry was posted
on Monday, July 11th, 2011 at 10:40 pm and is filed under Economy, Politics, Republican Crises.
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[...] In typical government fashion, Congress added another potentially inefficient layer to their dysfunctional process, adding the new 12 member "SuperCommittee." This additional layer of bureaucracy established by an inept and inexorably polarized Congress, is destined to fail; all six Republicans have signed the Norquist No Tax Pledge! [...]